The Memphis appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1886-1890, 1887-04-10
MRS. NARY A. LIVERh0RR
ON THE NECESSITY FOR THCHNI-
CAL EDUCATION
For Women, to Save Them From
the Accidents, Mishaps and
Dangers Of Life.
lCoasEarossEscE OF TIE ArrHAL. /


= BosToN, MASS, April ST I
were able, l would change the pub
lie sentiment SO radically that no girl
should be considered we'll educated,
no matter what her accomplish
ments, until she had learned trade,
business, or q profession. There
would then be fewer fathers and
brothers toiling like galley slaves to
support healthy and vigorous human
beings in stagnating idleness-idle
for no earthly reason save that God
has made them women. Lack of
technical and industrial training not
only makes dependent and inefficient
women of our daughters, it puts
them in fearful peril morally. In
dolence is always demoraliziDg. 1t
ruins health, destroys beauty, and
eDfeebles the will Out Of 1000
fallen women in the city of New
York, 1880 had been brought up to
do nothing; .525 pleaded restitution
as the cause of their sad lite" In
view Of these facts, which might
be multiplied Indefinitely, ought
we not to rid ourselves of
the inherited social idea that it is a
shameful thing for young women to
be taught to support themselves by
honorable Industry In an early
stage of the late war, before the
government had organized its vari
Gus departments, | saw body of
soldiers march from the st. Louis
camp to rendezvous and embark on
boats to 10 down the Mississippi.
Among them were companies with,
out uniform and without equip
ments. The men wore the citizens
dress in which they had enlisted. 1t
was explained that they had been or
dered TO the front Immediately after
their enlistment, in advance of the
arrival of their uniforms and guns,
to maintain the morale of the army,
which was unfavorably affected by
the mastering out of large numbers
who had enlisted on short terms of
service. Uniforms, guns and the all
important drill would be given
these raw recruits, we were
told, when they reached their
destination. Two or three weeks
later | met some of these very une-
Quipped men, still without uniforms,
on board a hospital boat steamiug
slowly up the river en- route for the
superb general hospitals OF St. Louis.
Some Of the poor fellows were so rent
with shot and shell that their own
mothers would not have recognized
them. | heard their pitiiul story
from many lips, but it was always
the same story. Hardly had these
green boys in the clothing of civilians
reached their regiments when they
were surprised by the enemy; and
without guns or an hours drill they
were plunged into sharp, disastrous
engagement. Shot at, shot down,
they could make no defense; for
they had not been supplied with the
munitions of war, nor taught how to
use them. 1t is as wasteful. as un-
wise, "a inhumnn 10 send our deli
cately nurtured and tenderly
reared young daughters out from
the home to fight the battle-of life
without a preparation for it, without
an equipment in the form oil an in
dustrial and business education, as it
was to send these hapless young fell
lows to fight the enemy without
drill and without guns. The results
are more disastrous, and reach
farther. Our daughters are not
shot down like the unframed mill
tary recruits; they live, but with no
individual grasp on life. They be-
come anxious concerning the future,
with no power to provide for it At
the mercy of circumstances, which
they know not how to control;
victims of petty beliefs, old abuses,
and respectable tyrannies they drop
into mental ill health, and bodily
disease comes with it. Or they mar
ry, and make faithful, loving, lovely
wives to admiring husbands. But the
husband dies. He was living on
salary, which ceases with his life. His
young widow has one or more chill
dren. What is she to do? Or the
husband may drop into permanent
invalidism, or into bankruptcy, or
into dissolute habits. If the young
wife has not been in part prepared
for such emergencies by previous
training, her lot is hard indeed. "Oh,
you can't prepare girls to meet such
emerg, nciesl" said an eminent cler-
gyman, in whose parlors this topic
was being earnestly discussed. You
must prepare them to be good wives
and mothers. and risk the rest. There
you will have TO leave them, and
trust in God" Our trust must be in
God, to be sure. No one disputes
that. And yet / have the deepest
respect for the advice that Oliver
Cromwell gave his soldiers-"Trust
in God, and keep your powder dryW